Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 52 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The laws of black-hole mechanics initially relate geometric quantities in a way resembling thermodynamics. Hawking radiation supplies a physical temperature: in units , while displaying ,The Hawking temperature is measured with the stationary time normalized at infinity. The radiation's thermal occupation factor is physically observable; propagation to infinity also introduces greybody factors, so the distant spectrum need not be a perfect blackbody spectrum at every frequency.
The Zeroth law of black-hole mechanics says that surface gravity is constant on a stationary Killing horizon under its standard hypotheses. Through the Hawking temperature, this becomes uniform equilibrium temperature. The First law of black-hole mechanics isUsing identifies its area term as . Integrating gives the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, up to an additive constant. Thus is the energy, the angular and charge terms are work terms, and the geometrical law is the ordinary thermodynamic first law with a fixed entropy normalization.
The second law of black-hole mechanics, or Hawking's area theorem, gives nondecreasing area in the classical setting with the requisite energy and predictability assumptions. It corresponds to increasing Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Semiclassical black-hole evaporation can decrease the area: the classical null energy condition need not hold for the quantum expectation of the stress-energy tensor. The appropriate extension is the generalized second law, that does not decrease, with the exterior entropy and its renormalization treated consistently. Hawking's temperature identification motivates this law; thermality alone does not prove every form of it.
The third law of black-hole mechanics is the unattainability, by an admissible finite physical process, of zero surface gravity. With Hawking temperature it becomes unattainability of absolute zero. It is not the assertion that an extremal black hole has vanishing entropy: its area can remain nonzero when .
For a Schwarzschild black hole, and , giving and . Their product satisfies , explicitly checking the first law. Quantum radiation turns the temperature and entropy in the mechanical analogy into physical thermodynamic quantities.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 54 3 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
In the Ingoing Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates, the stationary Killing vector field is with norm . The normal vector to a level set of isAt it equals , which is null there. Thus this null hypersurface is a Killing horizon of . Its surface gravity is fixed by on the horizon. Since there and ,The positive sign follows from the future outer-horizon generator, normalized by the static time at infinity. It vanishes as the two radii approach the extremal limit.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 54 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Physical-process first law for a rotating black hole, in four-dimensional general relativity with , isIt applies to a small neutral matter influx into an initially stationary, nonextremal black hole that settles to another stationary state. The background surface gravity and angular velocity are and , and are the Killing energy and angular momentum delivered through the event horizon. Other conserved charges are held fixed. The perturbation must be small enough that its horizon generators do not develop caustics, and all equalities below are to first order.
Let be the stationary Killing vector field normalized at infinity, and the axial Killing vector field with -periodic orbits. The horizon generator is . Choose an affine tangent and parameter with zero at the past stationary limiting section, so affine horizon-generator scaling gives, on the background horizonThe background null expansion and null shear vanish, and null twist vanishes for the hypersurface-orthogonal horizon generators. Linearizing the Null Raychaudhuri equation and using the Einstein field equations givesThe quadratic null expansion and null shear terms are second order. With background cross-sectional measure , the first-order area change is . Multiplying the evolution equation by and integrating by parts gives the first-order horizon-area response to matter fluxThe boundary term vanishes: at the past limiting section, and the final stationary boundary condition gives zero expansion in the settled future. Equivalently, assume a sufficiently localized influx with the required late-time decay.
The energy and angular-momentum fluxes have signsThese correspond to the particle conventions and . Their combination isThis proves the requested Physical-process first law of black-hole mechanics. For charged infall the corresponding law contains an additional horizon-potential term ; the energy-minus-angular-momentum version assumes that work term is absent.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 311 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Work first in units . Black-hole thermodynamics starts with the laws of black-hole mechanics. For a connected stationary regular Killing horizon, the Zeroth law of black-hole mechanics makes its surface gravity constant when the Einstein field equations and dominant energy condition hold. This parallels uniform equilibrium temperature. For neighboring stationary asymptotically flat four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell black holes, the First law of black-hole mechanics iswhere is the horizon angular velocity and its electric potential relative to infinity. The last terms are rotational and electromagnetic work, analogous to the work terms in . The second law of black-hole mechanics, expressed by Hawking's area theorem, makes the total future horizon area nondecreasing for classical matter obeying the null energy condition and global assumptions such as strong asymptotic predictability. The third law of black-hole mechanics is an unattainability statement: subject to the usual regularity assumptions, the weak energy condition, and a bounded stress-energy tensor, no finite physical process reduces the surface gravity of a regular horizon to zero. It does not assert that extremal black holes have zero area or zero entropy.
Classical geometry alone fixes an analogy, not a nonzero physical temperature. Quantum field theory supplies Hawking temperature . Comparing the area term of the first law with gives for nonextremal holes, and hence the standard Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Restoring physical constants,Here restored is the physical acceleration surface gravity and is the squared Planck length. The first-law comparison determines the area coefficient, leaving an additive entropy constant unspecified; the displayed formula is the usual convention. Its area scaling, rather than ordinary volume scaling, signals that the available thermodynamic degrees of freedom of a gravitating system are constrained by the horizon geometry.
Particle production explains the quantum input. For a real scalar field obeying the massless covariant wave equation, the Klein-Gordon inner product on solutions isThe wave equation makes its current divergence-free, so the product is independent of a Cauchy hypersurface when the boundary flux vanishes. Use suitably normalized wave packets or the appropriate continuum distributions. Asymptotic past and future Minkowski spacetimes give preferred positive-frequency solution mode bases and , normalized by , and . Between those regions, a nonstationary geometry generally has no preferred positive-frequency splitting.
The mode bases are related by a Bogoliubov transformation,The last identities follow from conservation of the Klein-Gordon inner product and are the canonical identities for a bosonic Bogoliubov transformation. Expanding the field in either complete basis and extracting its positive-frequency coefficient givesThus the state annihilated by every hasThis particle number from Bogoliubov coefficients is nonzero when time evolution mixes positive and negative frequencies. It describes one state as vacuum in the early particle basis and populated in the late basis; it does not require an arbitrary choice of a vacuum at each intermediate time. For a finite implementable transformation the state remains a squeezed pure quantum state. In infinitely many modes, a common unitary bosonic Fock space implementation requires additional conditions, such as the beta map being a Hilbert-Schmidt operator; finite wave packet observables need not share every global divergence of an ideal continuum calculation.
For gravitational collapse, the future is not globally Minkowski: it contains a black hole. The relevant late out-basis includes modes reaching future null infinity together with modes entering the future event horizon. Modes on infinity alone are not a complete Cauchy basis. Nevertheless the same mode-mixing calculation determines the outgoing particle flux. Near a nonextremal horizon, the logarithm in the tortoise coordinate converts regular early null coordinates into the Hawking exponential ray mapwhere is the early affine null coordinate and is late retarded time at infinity. Backward propagation of a late outgoing mode gives a factor for . Its positive- and negative-frequency Fourier integrals differ by analytic continuation around the logarithmic branch. With a convergence regulator they reduce toTaking gives the thermal ratio of Hawking Bogoliubov coefficients, . Combining this with the canonical normalization yields the bosonic occupation . Late-time wave packets turn formal continuum coefficients into a finite number flux.
A Schwarzschild black hole has , so this spectrum has . The exterior curvature potential partly reflects the outgoing modes. Its transmission probabilities are the greybody factors, giving, for one massless scalar species in the stationary late-time approximation,Thus the horizon temperature is universal, while the spectrum received at infinity is not a perfect featureless blackbody radiation spectrum. The derivation assumes the near-horizon quantum state inherited from a regular collapse vacuum and ignores rapid backreaction over the timescale of the packets. Exponentially blueshifted precursor frequencies indicate the usual short-distance assumption in the semiclassical calculation, not an independently demonstrated quantum-gravity description of the endpoint.
The outgoing positive energy flux drives black-hole evaporation. At leading order for a large isolated Schwarzschild black hole, area scales as and temperature as , giving and a lifetime of order , with the coefficient depending on species and transmission factors. Its negative heat capacity of a Schwarzschild black hole, , means that it heats up as it loses mass and cannot be in stable canonical equilibrium with an unlimited thermal reservoir. The approximation fails when quantum-gravitational scales are reached and does not fix whether the endpoint is complete evaporation, a remnant, or something else.
Area loss does not contradict the classical area theorem, because the quantum stress-energy tensor need not obey the classical null energy condition; negative horizon energy accompanies the positive outgoing flux. The appropriate thermodynamic statement is the generalized second law, involving . Finally, Hawking radiation raises the black hole information paradox: if a pure quantum state completely evaporates into an exactly thermal mixed quantum state and its partners disappear, the result conflicts with ordinary unitary time evolution. Early outgoing radiation can be mixed simply because of its entanglement with interior modes while the complete state remains a pure quantum state; that fact alone is not information loss. Resolving the fate of all correlations through the evaporation endpoint requires more than the leading semiclassical flux calculation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 311 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Physical-process first law for a rotating black hole applies to a small perturbation of a stationary nonextremal vacuum black hole by infalling neutral matter, followed by relaxation to stationarity. Its first-order form isHere the background horizon generator is , normalized by the unit time translation at infinity, and its surface gravity is constant, , as in the Zeroth law of black-hole mechanics. The formula neglects terms quadratic in the perturbation. Choose the process sufficiently weak that the horizon generators used below have no large caustics, and assume appropriate early and late stationary limits and convergent fluxes.
On the background Killing horizon, choose an affine generator such that ; the bifurcation or early stationary limit corresponds to . The background null expansion and null shear vanish. The null twist is zero because the perturbed event horizon is a null hypersurface. Linearizing the Null Raychaudhuri equation and using the Einstein field equations givesThe expansion squared and shear squared are second order, and the metric-trace part of the Einstein equations vanishes in this null contraction. Future stationarity sets . To first order is the derivative of the fractional area change, so, using the background area element ,The integration by parts uses , guaranteed by the stated endpoint conditions.
The conserved stress-energy current from a Killing vector gives the absorbed mass and angular momentum, with signsConsequentlywhich proves the law. Any other escaping flux must be accounted for separately when identifying these absorbed charges with the changes in the black hole. Electric-charge variations would require the corresponding potential-charge term; they are excluded in this version. The convention in Question 1 is not needed here.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 311 3 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
In the regular ingoing chart, the Killing vector field is , with . The normal covector to is ; raising its index gives at . Thus is null and normal to that hypersurface, which is a Killing horizon. It is regular because when .
The defining identity for surface gravity on a Killing horizon is . Here , so at the horizon this becomes . ThereforeThis uses the asymptotic normalization . A constant rescaling of rescales the surface gravity. As a check, the horizon area is and . The formula is being applied only to the regular strict-inequality case.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 311 1 b ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The stationary Killing vector field is , with . The normal to has squared norm , so is a null hypersurface; there is both tangent and normal. It is therefore a Killing horizon.
For a static metric of this form, the surface gravity is . Since and ,For the extremal black hole , the horizons coincide and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 311 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Classically, the laws of black-hole mechanics have the same form as the laws of thermodynamics, but this could have been only a formal analogy. Hawking radiation makes it physical: a stationary black hole emits approximately thermal radiation withso surface gravity is proportional to genuine temperature.
The correspondence is:
- constancy of on a stationary horizon becomes constancy of equilibrium temperature;
- the First law of black-hole mechanics
- Hawking's area theorem becomes a second law, replaced in the quantum theory by the generalized second law for ;
- the impossibility of reaching by a finite process parallels the unattainability of absolute zero.
A real Hawking temperature therefore identifies horizon area as thermodynamic entropy and turns the geometric laws into thermodynamic laws.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 311 3 a Solution 2026-09-28
The Physical-process first law for a rotating black hole states that a small flux of matter through an initially and finally stationary horizon obeysin units . Let be an affinely parametrized horizon tangent with affine parameter on a bifurcation surface. Constancy of the surface gravity from the Zeroth law of black-hole mechanics and Gaussian null coordinates give the horizon generatorTo first order about a stationary horizon, the squared expansion and shear in the Null Raychaudhuri equation are second order. The Einstein field equations reduce it toThe final stationary condition givesSince , reversing the order of integration yieldsThe stress-energy current from a Killing vector gives the horizon Killing-energy fluxwhich proves the stated law.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 311 4 c i Solution 2026-09-28
The horizon generator must be null at . Substitution of in the Kerr black hole metric givesThe surface gravity and Hawking temperature are
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 311 2 c Solution 2026-09-28
The normal to is , whose squared norm is , so the surface is a null hypersurface. In ingoing coordinates , and on the horizonThus is both tangent and normal there, making the surface a Killing horizon. For a static metric of this form, the surface gravity is . With ,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 311 4 Solution 2026-09-28
The four laws of black-hole mechanics closely parallel thermodynamics. The zeroth law says that the surface gravity is constant over a stationary Killing horizon. The first law isThe second law is Hawking's area theorem, under the null energy condition, and the third law of black-hole mechanics says that a regular extremal horizon with cannot be reached by a finite physical process. These match constancy of temperature in equilibrium, work terms, entropy increase, and unattainability of zero temperature.
Quantum field theory makes the analogy literal. A stationary horizon emits at the Hawking temperatureComparing with the area term in the first law gives the Bekenstein-Hawking entropyFor a Schwarzschild black hole, and .
To see why particles are produced, quantize a real scalar field using the conserved Klein-Gordon inner product. In the asymptotically Minkowski past choose positive-frequency modes and writeThe asymptotically Minkowski future supplies another positive-frequency basis and operators . In a nonstationary middle region there is no preferred timelike Killing vector and therefore no invariant positive-frequency split: the notion of particle is observer- and basis-dependent. The two mode bases are related by a Bogoliubov transformation,so the corresponding operators mix annihilation and creation operators. The in-vacuum then containsout-particles whenever .
For a black hole formed by collapse, late outgoing modes traced backwards toward the event horizon undergo an exponentially large blueshift. This produces a universal Bogoliubov mixing withthe Planck distribution at . Greybody scattering outside the horizon modifies the flux reaching infinity but not its characteristic temperature.
Hawking radiation gives a black hole negative heat capacity: it heats up as it loses mass and can evaporate in finite time. The generalized second law assigns entropy to the hole and states that this plus exterior entropy does not decrease. The enormous area entropy suggests microscopic horizon degrees of freedom. If semiclassical evaporation ends with only thermal radiation, an initially pure state appears to become mixed, producing the black hole information paradox. Resolving the endpoint, information recovery, and the microscopic origin of the area law are central constraints on quantum gravity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 311 1 d Solution 2026-09-28
The normal to a surface of constant is , and the inverse ingoing metric givesHence is a null hypersurface. LetThis constant linear combination of Killing vector fields is Killing. Its squared norm iswhich vanishes at . More strongly, lowering its index in the ingoing metric gives on the horizon. It is therefore the null normal and generator, so the surface is a Killing horizon.
Using on a Killing horizon, the squared term contributes no first derivative at andDifferentiating at its simple outer root givesso the surface gravity isIt vanishes in the extremal case .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 311 4 c Solution 2026-09-28
In a collapsing spacetime, positive-frequency in-modes are defined at past null infinity and outgoing modes at future null infinity. Tracing a late outgoing wave packet backward toward the forming event horizon produces an exponential blueshift. Its rapidly varying phase has both positive- and negative-frequency parts relative to the past time coordinate, so the Bogoliubov coefficient is nonzero. The resulting bosonic occupation numbers have the Bose-Einstein distribution atwhere is the surface gravity. The outgoing quanta form Hawking radiation, while their correlated partners cross the horizon.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 311 4 d i Solution 2026-09-28
For a metric with a simple Killing horizon, the surface gravity of is . HeresoThe Hawking temperature of the Schwarzschild--anti-de Sitter black hole is therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 311 1 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The normal to a surface of constant has squared normwhich vanishes at . Thus this surface is a null hypersurface. The stationary Killing vector fieldhas , so it becomes null there and generates a Killing horizon. Since has a simple zero, its surface gravity isA horizon cross-section has topology , where the circle is the periodic direction. Including a complete generator, the null hypersurface has topology
Reissner-Nordstrom horizon surface gravity 2026-10-14
For and , put . The stationary Killing vector field normalized at infinity generates the outer Killing horizon. In an ingoing null chart its covector is on that horizon; the Killing equation then gives , where . Thus the positive nonextremal surface gravity is . It tends to zero when , where the horizon becomes a degenerate Killing horizon. The past horizon branch has the opposite signed nonaffinity for the same time-translation field.
Surface gravity from the Killing derivative 2026-10-07
At a regular Killing horizon, the generator is hypersurface orthogonal and satisfies . The Killing derivative contraction identity gives the displayed squared surface gravity, including through a bifurcation surface by continuity. The generator's normalization is part of this formula.